


im dreaming (and it’s real)

by JamieGaylePiff



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 23:10:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20317576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamieGaylePiff/pseuds/JamieGaylePiff
Summary: khione is the goddess of snow. khione had three siblings.





	im dreaming (and it’s real)

she was restless. she couldn’t sleep. she had to, of course, but she couldn’t. she kept seeing him, and then she had to throw up and then she wasn’t tired.

but even the worst of insomniacs have to collapse at some point, don’t they?

that must have happened, because she had just been sitting on her bed, listless, and now she was falling...

cold, cold snow cushioned her fall.

it didn’t stick to her. it didn’t melt.

piper mclean stood, and she saw.

snow, pure and white, stretched away as far as she could see. probably farther, but the sky was the same color. they blended together.

some distance away, there was a woman. her back was all piper could see.

she had long black hair, curly and tangled and loose and streaked with iron.

wings extended from her back. they looked like the wings of cal and zetes. the memory of the twins made piper’s stomach churn.

she started towards the strange woman. closer, she could see her dress. it was simple, greek, cinched at the waist with a glittering cord.

when they were ten feet apart, the woman turned, and piper reached for her dagger.

khione looked different.

she didn’t look like a goddess. she looked like a mortal woman. she looked like she’d had children and seen them into adulthood.

but she still looked like khione.

piper didn’t know why she’d changed, or how she’d gotten wings, but the goddess had tried to kill her in person three times and she wasn’t anxious to make that four.

“i’m not here to hurt you,” khione sighed. “i just want to talk. sit, if you want.”

khione sat. there hadn’t been a chair, and one hadn’t appeared. she just knelt on the ground.

piper did not sit. she held her dagger, but she hadn’t drawn it.

yet.

“i’m sorry, piper.”

“for what? not killing me when you had the chance?”

“no. i’m sorry for trying. i think i had every right to want to see the gods destroyed, but you’re just a child. you did nothing to me.”

piper said nothing.

“you remember my brothers, don’t you?” khione asked.

piper nodded.

“we were quadruplets.”

“there’s three of you,” piper pointed out.

“yes, i can count. our sister was named kleopatra. i’ve almost forgotten her.”

the goddess’s breath didn’t form frost in the cold, clean air, though piper could see her chest rising and falling.

“do you have a point.”

“jason grace recently died. i’m sorry to hear that.”

“fuck you.”

khione’s laughter was as clear as church bells on christmas.

“that’s justified. i truly am sorry, though. he was so young.”

piper was sure that her face was an ugly snarl.

“my child, i am not a goddess. i understand death. my sister is dead, as is my son, and my mother, and so many others close to me. your jason did not mean much to me, but his death was needless. i am allowed to feel sorrow at that.”

piper sniffed. she hadn’t realized she was crying.

her mother hadn’t done this. she hadn’t come to her in a dream to offer some twisted sense of comfort. only khione, who had tried to kill her.

she didn’t see khione stand, or hurry closer. her eyes were blurred by tears.

arms wrapped around her, and a cocoon of feathers, and a voice, clear but not cold, was shushing her, and a hand petted her hair.


End file.
